Monday, January 19, 2009

It was over 80 years ago that A.A. Milne wrote The House at Pooh Corner, his second book based upon a lovable bear (which, in turn, was based on his son's stuffed bear). It was the two original books written by A.A. Milne and illustrated by E.H. Shepard that created the characters we know most commonly today as Disney's. But the only true spirit of Pooh and his friends are found in the original, wonderful books from the 1920s.

Now there will be another Pooh book. No not a cartoon-y Disney commissioned sequel, but one authorized by Milne and Shepard's estates; it is the first authorized sequel that will continue the original storyline created by Milne. It is tentatively titled Return to the Hundred Acre Wood and will be written by David Benedictus (who has converted the Pooh books to audio CD) and illustrated by Mark Burgess. According to the Telegraph, the man in charge of Milne's estate has said the following:

We have been hoping for a good many years that we might one day be able to offer the world a sequel which would do justice to the original Winnie-the-Pooh stories.

We believe that David Benedictus and [illustrator] Mark Burgess have captured the spirit and quality of those original books.

We hope that the many millions of Pooh enthusiasts and readers around the world will embrace and cherish these new stories as if they had just emerged from the pen of A. A. Milne himself.

I hope that this new book will do the original Pooh books justice, as they are very good stories. Don't get me wrong, I love Disney and their depictions of Winnie the Pooh, but with their recent CG attempt at Winnie the Pooh with Christopher Robin being replaced with a girl is, quite frankly, terrible. I love the original series The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, but I don't think that anything will replace Milne's classic Winnie the Pooh stories.

The book is planned for release on October 5, 2009, setting it up for potentially lucrative Christmas sales.

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